FIG. 1 depicts top and side views of a portion of a conventional energy assisted magnetic recording (EAMR) transducer 10. For clarity, FIG. 1 is not to scale. The conventional EAMR transducer 10 is used in writing a recording media (not shown in FIG. 1) and receives light, or energy, from a conventional laser (not shown in FIG. 1). The conventional EAMR transducer 10 includes a conventional waveguide 12 having cladding 14 and 16 and core 18, a conventional grating 20, a conventional near-field transducer (NFT) 22, and a conventional pole 30. Light from a laser (not shown) is incident on the grating 20, which coupled light to the waveguide 12. Light is guided by the conventional waveguide 12 to the NFT 22 near the air-bearing surface (ABS). The NFT 22 focuses the light to magnetic recording media (not shown), such as a disk.
In operation, light from the laser is coupled to the conventional EAMR transducer 10 using the grating 20. The waveguide 12 directs light from the grating 12 to the NFT 22. The NFT 22 focuses the light from the waveguide 12 and heats a small region of the conventional media (not shown). The conventional EAMR transducer 10 magnetically writes data to the heated region of the recording media by energizing the conventional pole 30.
Although the conventional EAMR transducer 10 may function, there are drawbacks. The trend in magnetic recording continues to higher recording densities. For example, currently, magnetic recording densities reaching 500-600 Gb/in2 are desired. At such high densities, performance of the conventional NFT 22 may degrade. In some instances, the conventional NFT 22 may be destroyed during use.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for improving performance and reliability of an EAMR transducer.